New Record Set By Massive Catch Of Wisconsin’s State Fish

While it might seem like it, this is no fish tale!

Wisconsin saw a new state record set for one particular species of fish not once, but three separate times in 2025!

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported yesterday, 2025 was a big year for people catching the state fish of Wisconsin.

Over the course of the 2025 open-water fishing season in Wisconsin, three different people set new records in the state's live-release record fish category for muskellunge.

The live-release record category was instituted in 2017 with the goal of promoting conservation and the careful release of trophy-size sport fish. Records in this category are accepted through applications that include records of length and photographic evidence of the fish from multiple angles, including one of the fish lying on its side witha ruler to show its measurement.

READ MORE: These Are The Record-Breaking Largest Fish Caught In Wisconsin's Waters

These records are kept separate from Wisconsin's longer-running hook and line fishing records.

The first of the three people to set a new record in the biggest live-released musky caught in 2025 was a 56-inch-long whopper caught in Green Bay on June 4 by Jake Van Remortel of Hazelhurst, Wisconsin. Here's a social media post of his catch:

About three months later, an even bigger musky was caught and released in Green Bay, a 56.5-inch fish caught by Greg Matzke of Florence, Wisconsin.

Two massive fish, both caught by Wisconsinites. The one that now holds the record, though, will make Wisconsinites mad.

The fish that ultimately now holds the record as the biggest live-released musky caught in Wisconsin wasn't caught by a Wisconsinite. Brace yourself...it was caught by a guy from Illinois.

I know, that news probably has you wanting to spit out your Brandy Old Fashioned and yell FIB! Here's the thing: he seems like a good guy based on what I can gather about him.

The guy behind Wisconsin's new live-released musky record is a firefighter and paramedic named Sam Becker from Mokena, Illinois. See what I mean? He's doing some good things for his community.

Anyway, Sam's new record-setting fish is a 57-inch musky with a 22-inch girth that he caught (you guessed it) in Green Bay. His record-setting fish was caught, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in the evening hours of August 26. Here's a social media post of his record-setting catch:

Even though Becker's fish was caught before Greg Matzke's, Matzke held the record for a bit because Becker reportedly waited to report it to the Wisconsin DNR for a bit.

It's now official, though!

This new live-release record is still a little short of the normal hook-and-line record of 63.5 inches, which was set in 1949 on the Chippewa Flowage, but it's still a very impressive fish!